ELDERSBURG – With sunlight illuminating newly-installed stained-glass windows depicting Joseph in his coat of many colors, Archbishop William E. Lori celebrated the completion of a beautification project at St. Joseph’s church in Eldersburg.
The new windows, blessed by Archbishop Lori during an April 28 Mass along with a restored tabernacle, feature both the Joseph of the Old Testament and St. Joseph of the New Testament.
“These beautiful stained-glass windows, as you know so well, are more than a way of decorating your church,” he said in his homily to those gathered, including five young people receiving their first holy Communion.
“As the sun illuminates these windows and the images of the two Josephs and Jesus himself shine upon you, you are attracted by them, you are drawn into their story, blessed by their example,” he said.
The windows and the restored tabernacle cost about $334,000. These and other enhancements were the culmination of the parish’s jubilee fundraising that began in 2018, 150 years after the community opened its original church building above downtown Sykesville.
After funding a restoration of the historic Sykesville church and the community’s youth ministry, there was $150,000 left over. Father John Worgul, pastor, knew exactly what he wanted to propose for those remaining funds: beautification of the Eldersburg church.
“The reasons for this were many: the original intent when the church was constructed (in 1998), was to have stained-glass. The lower windows were designed to accommodate them without modification,” Father Worgul explained.
The blessing Mass was just as seamlessly incorporated into a new tradition, now in its third year: a celebration of St. Joseph, held ahead of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1. The weekend included 33 hours of eucharistic adoration, a four-course Italian dinner and dance, and a traditional St. Joseph’s altar furnished with food, flowers and donations in support of Carroll County Food Sunday, Mary’s House and Sarah’s House.
The Mass began with a sprinkling rite over the congregation and continued with the Liturgy of the Word and Archbishop Lori’s homily, after which the archbishop processed around the church and blessed each of the windows with holy water. He then blessed the refurbished tabernacle, the candelabras flanking it, and a relic of St. Victorian and companions that was installed in the altar ahead of Mass. The tabernacle, relic and candelabras are all from the Eldersburg campus’ 1964 church, which now serves as the parish center.
The candelabras sit on wooden pedestals donated by parishioner Dan Brown, who serves as sacristan at daily Masses and who crafted the pedestals in his home woodworking studio.
The windows, made by Associated Crafts & Willet Hauser, depict mirroring events in the lives of Joseph of the Old Testament and St. Joseph from the New, with pairings such as “Joseph is Sold into Egypt” across from “the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt.”
“Much prayer, thought and design planning went into the project to not only have beautiful windows but also to have a storyline as well,” Father Worgul said of the project, which was explained in booklets, with an accompanying coloring and activity book version for kids.
Rachel Wandishin, chairwoman of the parish pastoral council, said she looked at each window when they were first installed.
“I sort of made a little pilgrimage through the Joseph of the Old Testament and then the Joseph of the New Testament,” she said. “The parallels are amazing.”
Drawing on Sunday’s Gospel of the vine and branches and the celebration of first Communion at the parish, Archbishop Lori implored those present to lean into the connectedness to Christ and the communion of saints – especially St. Joseph – that the windows and the renovation invoked.
“Let us never forget that nothing brings us closer to God, nor brings us closer to one another, than the Eucharist,” the archbishop said.
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